I went to PFC in the late 80‘s/early 90’s. I started as a high senior 9 and continued on for the next 5 years into the counselor years. Some of the best years of my life thus far. I stopped only because it was time to get an internship “in the real world.” It was not my choice, that’s for sure.
Fast forward many years, I am now a Mom of two childen at PFC…a13 year old girl, who will start her fifth summer as a high senior 9 and a 10 year old boy going into his second summer as an Inter 5. I was an Inter 5 counselor and some of my then campers now have kids at camp as well! How old that makes us all feel goes without saying!
When we started our family camp search, we researched a few camps. I told myself what was right for me may not be right for my children. PIne Forest was all I wanted for them but I tried to be fair and open. It was my daughter who knew right away that Pine Forest was for her. Perhaps her 2nd generation status wooed her a bit, but she said she just got “a feeling” the second she saw PFC. She’s so my kid.
As I tell my children, PFC was my happy place for many years in my youth but it’s now theirs. I try not to bombard them with memories and stories and resist the urge to point out pictures of me on the Hughie and dining hall walls. They’re building their own memories now and the time is all theirs. But as I’ve learned, PFC is still a place in all of our hearts. The same incredible Black family still owns and runs it, 5 generations, 85 years strong. A lot of course has changed with the times, but so much has remained the same. Just how we would want it to be.
Sometimes you don’t know how much something means to you until you come back again and see it through the eyes of your children. I encourage you to give camp a call, check out their website, schedule a meeting with one of the team and consider giving your child the gift of PFC, just as your parents did. Give yourself the thrill of a lifetime, getting to watch your child walk the same hills, play on the same fields and sit in the same Netsy benches for Friday night services as you did! It really is a rare and special gift, not only for your children, but for yourself!
– Hillary Lane Slovin
